


The Knowledge to Travel

by AnnCherie



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: 23rd Timeline (The Magicians), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnCherie/pseuds/AnnCherie
Summary: an exploration of Penny meeting and falling for "his Julia" Wicker...





	1. Chapter 1

 

He recognizes her face from the exam, once he sees her on the grounds, walking across with a joyful smile and a handful of books. Her face is heart shaped when she smiles, and the way her dark brown hair curls down past her neck is pleasant. A nerdy looking boy with ruffled hair and squinty eyes is trying to keep pace behind her, looking just as happy. The boy’s thoughts are on 100% dial volume, though, grating on Penny’s nerves immediately.

_Does this mean Fillory is real? It has to be, right? Julia will have to help me… she’ll need to know like me, she’s just caught up in school and an excuse for James…_

Penny loudly groaned in an attempt to drown out the rambling anxiety, scaring a sullen looking blonde girl next to him, also nose deep in books. He didn’t understand everyone’s obsession. He had always known about magic– came with the territory of telepathy. Learning even more felt pointless, but at least here he didn’t feel like a freak lost in a sea of humans who had no wards.

 

* * *

 

Penny didn’t see the girl again until she was practically running at him, making him pause and hold his hands up, but she shoved him anyway. He could guess what it was about, but didn’t quite expect a post-grad student to act like a lioness defending her nerd cub.

“Leave Quentin alone, you understand me?”

“ _Look,_ whatever your name is, I can’t help it if that dude has no wards and I despise Taylor Swift. You teach your boyfriend how to be a basic magician, sound good?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she replied with rolled eyes and a tired tone. Her body language was still fierce, however. “And my name is Julia. Remember that, because I will be the one to hand you your ass,  _sound good_?”

Not wanting to admit it, her mocking tone and overall strong attitude did amuse him. It was even attractive to a degree, and he had been a little bored around here. She’d already walked off though, and he can’t help but there’s one interesting plus to watching her leave…

 

* * *

 

There’s a weird struggle that starts to happen in their general classes between the physical kids and the specialist stuck with them– Knowledge discipline Julia Wicker, while friendly as possible, was intent on competing with everyone in the class. Quentin seemed slightly resigned to this, although did get in an occasional quip, but no one else seemed amused. Even the second year Margo Hanson had took notice of the gossip. If he took a more general look at the class he could even see Alice Quinn biting her lip a few times. Julia offers up a study group after class that Quentin shrugs off, stating plans with Eliot, and the rest of the class looks uneasy. Julia frowns, and surprising himself, Penny chimes in. “I’ll go.”

Julia’s lips briefly purse, but then she smiles and nods. Margo sizes up Penny before heaving a sigh and saying she’ll join in too but that she was bringing alcohol. Alice quickly dodges out of the classroom in the exchange.

When they meet, Penny is a little shocked there’s only one book on a table further in the wooded grounds. Margo is already here mixing drinks, and Julia is stretching. Now practical exams, he could get behind that.

He didn’t stretch. She sent a disapproving “humph” in his direction, but moved on. When Margo and Penny went to silently follow her lead, they both stopped the second they realized the basic spell.

“I missed a minimum of one good fuck tonight for this. Really?” Margo demanded, a tone so catty that Penny almost had to applaud her.

“So you know the movements, sure, but why does it work? How do you make it stronger, more effective? It’s not just emotion that makes you better in the moment,” Julia responded, completely ignoring Margo’s attitude.

Penny studied her. Her curiosity was something to behold, sure, but this sort of thing made him ask, “What does it matter as long as it works?”

“It matters in case it stops working,” Julia replied. “Knowing how to use the spell at a moments notice– I mean– Theory is vital.”

“My need for debauchery is vital,” Margo huffed, sending Penny a wink. “Let me know if you’re ever game.”

And then they’re alone, in the forest, before Julia mumbles about this being a mistake and leaves. He isn’t quite sure if he should have stopped her.

 

* * *

 

_A fucking summoning spell._ When he finally follows _…_ hisvoice… the private, but not internal voice he’s clung to for survival all these years, it brings him to two idiots– Quentin, obviously included– intent on doing a summoning spell. Julia is also there but arguing against them, her voice quickly rising. Alice looks murderous until she spots him.

“Penny.” the blonde gasped. “You’re here. That means… that means we can actually do it. How did you know?”

“Long story,” he replied briskly. “Look, Julia is right, this is dangerous.”

“But you’re here,” Quentin pointed out obnoxiously. Julia flickered her eyes in Penny’s direction and he barely held his tongue to lash out for her presence.

“And Jules… I wouldn’t do this if there wasn’t a good reason, okay?”

Julia tightens her jaw, her shoulders still tense, and glances at Penny to see if he’ll join as well. He shrugs, and so they sit. And wait. And wait. He leaves eventually, one last look to a worried and still angry looking Julia as he walks through the doorway.

 

* * *

 

The next week is horrific. Guilt, blame, resignation, being begged to stay as the only traveler in decades… Julia no longer has a regular smile. Alice has become a complete recluse. Quentin looks more or less the same, but the thoughts have turned from pop music to dark.

Penny can still only remember flashes. Flashes of Julia pushing it back, and of Alice banishing the beast all together. But blood, before that, and violence. The room still wreaks of fear every time he walks in. 

He stopped Julia after class one day, when the worry about expulsion is over. “Look, you’ve got to forgive yourself sometime. It wasn’t even your idea. You were stopping them from getting hurt.”

She gives him a fake expression, twisting corners of her mouth in an awkward way. “I should have stopped it completely.”

“Did you know– did you know something like this was going to happen before the spell? All your ominous talk when we were practicing, I just–,”

“No,” she snapped at him. “But any force like this can be a weapon. That’s just human nature, right? Turns out we needed it as first year students.”

 

* * *

 

When the first year initiation trials had all but come to a close, and there were only four of them he knew left, Penny could barely breathe at the horrifying  thought of doing a truth challenge with Quentin. Luckily, he was spared. At first he was sure he’d be with Alice, which was fine even if slightly awkward, but then Eliot gave a wicked smile and announced Penny would be paired with Julia instead.

Undressing was never a problem of Penny’s, he knew he looked hot. The problem, it turned out, was watching Julia undress with no reaction. It proved impossible. Before he could stop himself, he muttered, “You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she said politely, but she was smiling as she eyed him too. “So the paint?”

“Yeah, the paint,” Penny agreed.

Touching each other like this in even the secluded public of the woods, barely more than acquaintances, was slightly new to him. The most similar experiences he’d had all involved sex, not ropes that forced truth out. This though… the way he could feel his own skin cold at her touch, watching her eyes flutter halfway as if she was both focused and distracted all at once… He could barely keep his eyes trained from looking south as he spread his thumbs across her collarbones and tried to ignore the brief shiver she gave.

“So if you’re tying me up anyway, we can always…”

“After the trials, if you’re lucky,” she replied to his teasing, flirting tone. He could almost imagine her giving one back as she finished his knot and he finished hers. “So.”

Now both tied, things started to dissolve into uncomfortable. “So.”

“Well, utmost truth, right? Isn’t the perfect truth what humans want to deny? So really, we should probably consider our fears.”

“Do you ever let go?” Penny asked her, cutting through the analysis.

“Yes, I do, but this is grad school. Magical college Hogwarts grad school,” she said with a bright smile, but then turned serious on a dime. “And– well, we already messed up. I need to figure out how to fix it. No matter the work.”

“Okay. I guess ask me a question first then.” Penny sighed.

“Is the reason you’re so brusque with people because you don’t want to get through their shields?” she asked, making him pause.

Shaking his head, he answered. “No, I just don’t like people.”

“I don’t believe you,” Julia replied. “No one naturally grows up hating the world. It must have been hard growing up with powers from the beginning.”

Penny grumbled, his entire body now tense. What had been a sexy moment had taken a turn for reality that he tried to avoid. “Fine, my turn. You try so fucking hard at this school because you want to justify breaking up with that James dude and not just because you love magic.”

“How do you know about James?” Julia asked, off guard.

“I told you, Quentin has no wards.”

She frowned, looking away with a small huff of frustration that seemed more for Quentin than Penny. Then she turned back to him, eyes sad and fingers fidgeting. “You’re wrong. The reason I try extra hard is because I feel like shit for how I treated Quentin not knowing magic was real. Like he was crazy and needed help and medication… just like my mother did to my father. And he was right all along anyway. Maybe if I put extra effort into it, even the fillory parts, he’ll know how sorry I am.”

Her ropes slipped off, but he hoped she would answer honestly as he said, “Are you in love with him?”

“No, not like that,” she answered, looking a little wistful. “Let’s get your ropes off.”

Groaning didn’t help. Penny scoffed at the ropes before helplessly looking at Julia and listing off, “I was born in Florida, my powers started when I was in high school, my real first name is William–,”

He stopped at the patronizing look Julia gave him. “All interesting, but not remotely profound.”

“Fine,” he huffed, painfully aware that if the choice was be expelled from Brakebills for inadequacy or be untied and free to touch the gorgeous naked girl in front of him, he’d choose the latter. “I’m rude to people because they’re going to judge me for being a druggie slash former street kid anyway, okay?”

She went to speak, but his ropes slipped off and she smiled instead. Penny looked away, still tense.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> further dabbles. shout out to @sullyandlulu for helping me figure out Julia's prized possession!

Flying as a bird was fucking ridiculous and overrated in comparison to the way the nerds and Julia were gushing about it. He hated bugs, he hated not being in his own body or spirit, and he sure as fuck did not like the cold that high up in the air. Or the snow they had arrived to. The only thing he did like was the way Julia made this weird school uniform look. She sent a smile at him before they were yelled at by dick Mayakovsky.

 

When the teacher, if one could call him that, started shouting at them he could see Julia's face brighten at the idea of finally learning spells for spells. It was quite possibly the nerdiest thing he'd ever seen-- especially since even the usual dorks Alice and Quentin seemed unsure-- but somehow she made it endearing. Mayakovsky scoffed at her, shouted some more insults, but Julia's mood didn't falter. The smile simply left for happy determination. Penny internally sighed, and didn't catch himself rolling his eyes until she stuck her tongue out at him once they were dismissed.

 

Quentin eyed them at the exchange and gave Julia an irritated look, cementing the fact that Penny needed to get that much close to her.

 

It helped that he had more or less stealthily chosen a room across from hers, a move it seemed Quentin had copied with Alice, which was gross but not his problem. Julia didn't waste any time working on the silent spell, completely ignoring him as he struggled to both pay attention and make any physical progress with his own nail in the first place. Before dinner she was finished. Mayakovsky pretended he was pissed, spat some curses at her for looking proud of herself, and gave her even more work. If she didn't look secretly happy Penny would have decked the guy. 

 

The next day is worse, which had broken high standards after the fuckery of driving nails into boards. Julia is shouted at yet again, this time for trying to defend helpless, bleeding heart Quentin kill a fucking bug… but then Penny is dragged off by Mayakovsky and mutilated via tattoo removal. Then he's forced through a million trials of travel. When Julia catches sight of his singed clothes and hair before he gets a shower, she gives him a look of surprise and concern.

 

That night, before he can fall asleep, she climbs into his ridiculously small bed. His breath is in his throat when she does so, unable to think about stopping her, but all she does is cuddle up against him.

 

“I hate the cold and snow,” she mutters softly, putting her head against his chest under the crook of his arm.

 

He smiled. “You're talking to someone from Florida, I get it.”

 

She murmured something unintelligible, and if he couldn't feel her pounding heartbeat he would have thought she was falling asleep.

 

“You mentioned something about sleeping together after the trials,” he said, trying to put as much flirting into it as possible and cover the rest of emotion up. Cuddling before sex had even started wasn’t his thing. 

 

Chuckling, she told him, “Technically the trials aren't over… Or my relationship.”

 

“Yet here we are,” he said, moving his body to a better angle, making her shift as well.

 

She bit her lip, nodded, and then the cold quickly wasn't a problem anymore.

  
  
  


*

  
  
  


Penny wasn’t necessarily a complete asshole to girls after sex, but he always wound up having a talk about how he wasn’t a relationship guy and “she” was great in bed but he “didn’t want to hurt her”. He intended to have the same talk with Julia, after Brakebills South, but it never seemed like the right time. A day or two had passed where they flirted in class, made out a few times between others, but nothing more. Casual enough that he put it off longer and longer, until he overheard Quentin’s conversation in the shared downstairs living room one night.

 

“Really, Julia?” skinny white boy asked. “Penny? Do you think you could find anyone less like James?”

 

“It’s not about James, Q,” she said in return. “And it’s none of your business.”

 

“He’s a  _ constant _ dick to me! Margo and Eliot wouldn’t do this.”

 

“Nothing personal, Quentin, but yes I would,” Margo chimed in.

 

“I wouldn’t,” Eliot added nobly, before amending, “Sober, at least.”

 

Penny rolled his eyes before going back upstairs to do more homework for the actual  discipline he belonged with. Julia hadn’t sounded overly defensive or like she was being attacked, but she had been firm. He wasn’t sure what to make of that, or if he even should. There hadn’t been any talk of feelings, he’d never brought up her ex since their truth experiment… and for as curious as Julia was about everything else in the world, she hadn’t asked him either. For a minute he had to wonder if for once  _ he _ was the one getting played.

  
  


*

  
  


Because this school was more or less a fucking nightmare, the next time he sees Julia that isn’t in class is in the hospital ward with Quentin’s panic attack the loudest thing Penny’s heard since he went to a dubstep concert. She’s bandaged with a million Healers around her that all shove him out and he finds Quentin in a second, five seconds away from killing him himself. “What the fuck happened?”

 

Quentin can’t really explain over his stumbling words, but Penny can hear the thoughts and see the images anyway, and before he can turn around to travel and murder the motherfucking attacker Alice enters the room and tells him, “They’ve found him, Penny, they already found him.”

 

So he waits, nervously pacing the room and pissed that he’s doing it. At some point Margo joins them, demands that they follow her back so they can get as wasted as possible-- in a way that only she could-- and so Penny listens and gets just enough high that he stops trying to search for Julia's thoughts to make sure she’s alive. He wants to yell at Eliot for not noticing that his fucking boyfriend was evil or possessed. He thinks about it more than a few times, actually, because it would feel wonderful to go off on someone, but Margo would castrate him and Eliot is already a mess. Wards weren’t as powerful when as drunk and high as only Eliot could be without overdosing.

 

The next victim Penny wants to bully is Quentin for letting Julia get in harm’s way to protect himself, but Quentin is doing that enough himself and going to a dark place that Penny doesn’t want to touch. Maybe the nerd notices though, because he starts to shoot Penny weary glances, and Penny thinks he might be glaring holes into Quentin’s head when the silence is broken.

 

“Look, it had to be the Beast, you know that,” Quentin said, not defending himself really, but maybe trying to stop Penny from going postal while he had to sit and wait. If anything was his weakness, as a traveler, it was fucking patience. “Let’s focus on figuring that out, since Dean Fogg has-- Mike.”

 

Quentin finished the sentence lamely, with a worried glance to Eliot, but Eliot did not look mentally capable of thought or worry.

 

While it was a reasonable request, Penny couldn’t deal with it right now. Thoughts of the Beast and what that all meant for the danger that had befallen them was too much. He wanted to leave the school, but it was the only place that had any idea what was going on. How to keep the voice of the Beast in his head tamed. In the meantime, he decided to leave the Physical college and travel back outside of the hospital wing to wait. Proud of himself when he landed right where he wanted, he sat down and tried to push down all emotions related to-- feelings or whatever that meant. Julia needed to be okay.

 

She was conscious in the morning, and Quentin had already returned to wait with Penny. Morning classes had been cancelled due to the event for safety, not that he would have given a fuck. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t happy just to be awake. Instead she was surprised and a little groggy as the nurse came to check on her quietly.

 

“Jules, you’re okay,” Quentin said, sighing with relief as the nurse left with the intent to get more bandages now that she deemed Julia awake enough.

 

“I’ve been better,” Julia replied, almost sounding bemused. “But yeah. I’m okay.”

 

“Fogg won’t let me kill the motherfucker,” Penny told her, and she turned to look at him with her beaut-- no,  _ brown _ eyes. “I tried to travel into the cell earlier but they had wards up.”

 

With a small chuckle, she told him, “We need information first. Then  _ I _ get to stab him so we’re equal.”

 

Something made her wince as she laughed though, even though it wasn’t much of a laugh, and Penny thought it was odd that a magically healed wound would cause her that sensitive pain. When the nurse came back seconds later to change the bandage, Quentin and Penny turned around, only to have the nurse gasp.

 

Immediately looking to see what caused the concern, he could see the blood through Julia’s bandage and sickly looking green and purple spreading through the veins around it.

 

“I’ve never been stabbed before,” Julia said through pain, “But that doesn’t look good.”

 

“I fucking hate magic,” Penny stated firmly.

  
  


*

  
  


As Julia’s condition progressed, Quentin finally became useful and broke out his Fillory nerd shit to figure out the weapon used. Whatever the Virgo blade was, other than cursed and from a different world, it was nasty. The second vines started growing out of Julia’s stomach Penny had begun yelling at Quentin, who rambled until they at least found some sort of solution in a voodoo doll. Julia sheepishly admitted that she had one from when her and Quentin were young-- which Penny would definitely give her shit for later-- but Penny travelled immediately to her room, retrieved the doll, and nothing happened as they burned it.

 

“Are you fucking serious?” Penny demanded, turning on a defensive looking Alice and a panicked Quentin. “What are these books useful for if they can’t even get shit right?”

 

“Look, the books are just a caricature! We know that now with the Beast, right?” Alice snapped back at him. “Don’t blame Quentin. We’ll figure it out.”

 

Julia was barely able to keep herself from whimpering in pain and Penny’s temper was only getting higher before she interrupted, “Q. Maybe it’s to replace her heart. Not a doll.”

 

The sentence didn’t make much sense, but Quentin seemed to latch onto it as Julia’s consciousness started flickering in and out. Penny demanded. “What does that mean?”

 

“We need-- we need something she loves, something like a sacrifice?” Quentin rushed, pushing his hair back into more of a mess. “Fuck, I don’t know something of James?”

 

“I doubt it’s James,” Penny said flatly, and Quentin gave him a rather severe glare.

 

“Ugh, fine, shit. Shit. Maybe old Fillory books?”

 

“It’s probably something you gave her,” Penny huffed, barely able to outweigh his pride with his impatience. The truth experiment made it pretty clear how much Julia valued Quentin for whatever reason.

 

Quentin blinked for a few seconds, before stumbling. “Or her dad. I think… I think she still has aquarium tickets from when we went before he-- they'd be in her journal, probably in her nightstand.”

 

Without even spending the time to acknowledge, he traveled back and searched everywhere. Her nightstand drawer was was warded, and he swore before breaking the entire wood object itself and grabbing the journal. Curiosity passed him at what was written in there, and he found several items between pages before he grabbed the tickets.

 

Even though it was to save her life, he felt the same awkwardness as Quentin did burning something so special to her. The thoughts Quentin unwillingly projected painted a picture that Penny wished he wasn't privy to. Julia's family was more fucked up than he had thought given her privilege.

 

The second she was properly healed, Quentin pulled her into a fierce hug and Penny stood feet away, trying not to hate him for it. There was some jealousy at the way they so freely and deeply cared about each other, even if he knew Julia would never want Quentin romantically. He wanted to tell Quentin to piss off so he could kiss Julia, but he knew he was the one on the outside right now and it moved him in a way he didn't expect. Julia turned to look at him, her eyes expectant and vulnerable, and before he could come undone he traveled back to his dorm. Kicking his dresser violently, he grabbed some drugs out of the top drawer and got started on pushing the feelings back down. 

**Author's Note:**

> should I continue, or?


End file.
